Great Lighthouses of Ireland
- Submitting institution
-
Queen's University of Belfast
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 205563003
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- RTE
- Month
- September
- Year
- 2018
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- Great Lighthouses of Ireland is a 4x52min documentary TV series broadcast on Irish national television, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTE). This topic had not previously been covered in such a comprehensive manner with high production values. Significant scope is also evident in the extensive research carried out (including film archive), logistics addressed in covering the whole island during unreliable weather, technology employed (e.g. helicopters), and team coordination (e.g. producers, editors, composers, researchers). The work was commissioned by RTE with additional support from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. As director and writer, all creative credit goes to the submitting author.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Written and directed by Delaney, this four-part (4 x 52 min.) television documentary/factual series explores the history and story of Irish Lighthouses. This research project resulted in an archivable document as well as a broadcast series investigating how contemporary documentary filmmaking technologies create a living memory archive of the oral history of lighthouse keepers. Its methodology employs ethnographic and archival methods such as oral history (interviews with those who worked and lived in lighthouses), and textual and visual data gleaned from original maritime documents (coastguard archives found in lighthouse buildings, or held by the Commissioners of Irish Lights Office - Coimisinéirí Soilse na hÉireann, and in private collections). The script for the series also draws on historic and contemporary literature on this subject and its architectural, sociological, and environmental contexts. The visual style and sound design for the series was informed by research into modern Irish maritime and landscape art, photographic depictions of lighthouses, and earlier television documentaries - e.g. The Last Lighthouse (1974, BBC), and Irish Lights (1980, RTÉ). Using modern drone technology, the series was able to photograph previously inaccessible locations and document the extraordinary feats of engineers in constructing these structures in such hostile places. Additionally, helicopter and ‘Westcam’ technology enabled the photography of extreme weather and waves around the Irish coastline that to date had only been communicated via myth and folklore.
Co-produced by RTÉ (Ireland’s national broadcaster) and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, the series has been broadcast approximately six times by RTÉ, with viewing figures in the 800k-1m range per run. The series also attracted significant press and radio attention, including pick of the week by multiple national press publications. The series was featured and listed as recommended viewing on RTE’s Ryan Tubridy Show which has a listener ship of over 200,000 listeners daily.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -